What *will* you fear ? (horror)

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
What will be your and also society's greatest fears in the near future (1-5 years)? I have been studying up on j-horror (Japanese horror), several fine books on the topic, where j-horror has had incredible success by capitalizing on societal fears. For example, many j-horror films (Ring, Grudge, Pulse) made use of the issue of viruses, viral spread, morphed that into storytelling about the viral propagation of evil; The Ring went further and combined that with current technology (videotapes, video monitoring). So I was thinking as writers (at least those of us interested in writing horror), it might be prudent to think about what the next upcoming fear trends might be, to then use that to think about ways to weave it into horror tales. Thoughts?
 
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I checked out a website that theorizes the inevitable collapse of the american dollar. Something about the dollar losing its status as world currency. Prices on everyday goods would skyrocket and riots abound.

I don't know anything about economics, so please don't slam me for presenting a conspiracy theory. I thought it was a horrifying concept that portends an apocalyptic scenario.

Rather than a zombie outbreak, you have a riot outbreak. A riot of national proportions.
 
That's not particularly universal though. Only scary to americans, the idea of actually having to pay the same prices the rest of us do for products and services. I've been cleaning up on eBay and other online outlets since the aussie dollar's been on the rise. I'm not scared at all!:nads: Hehe. No offence intended.

Maybe identify theft on all scales - from online jacking to credit card/passport all the way through to genetic material. And I'll get the obvious out of the way with environmental concerns.
 
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While obviously there's the threat of nuclear war, terrorism, etc. the most common fear is lack of security at home -- both financially and physically. Financially: job loss, foreclosure, etc. Physically: break-ins, murder, rape, gangs, police brutality, sexual molestation, missing children reports day and night on the news. Whatever's going on globally is far away -- we don't lock our doors at night and tells our children to be home by 10 because the Russians might invade us.

-JMT
 
What will be your and also society's greatest fears in the near future (1-5 years)?
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David Jimerson said:
Let's make sure we stay away from politics here.
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Michael Traven said:
...the most common fear is lack of security at home ... Whatever's going on globally is far away -- we don't lock our doors at night and tells our children to be home by 10 because the Russians might invade us.-JMT
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Related-- Michael what I found interesting reading a book analyzing jhorror with lots of referencing to The Grudge and The Ring, was that both stories have horror happening on broad daylight, and urban. The Grudge was purposefully set to occur in daylight, urban Tokyo, even at an office, or urban apartment, or urban home-- not at night in a rural haunted country home-- emphasizing that the horrors could happen to all of us, during the daytime, in our ordinary urban homes.
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
Related-- Michael what I found interesting reading a book analyzing jhorror with lots of referencing to The Grudge and The Ring, was that both stories have horror happening on broad daylight, and urban. The Grudge was purposefully set to occur in daylight, urban Tokyo, even at an office, or urban apartment, or urban home-- not at night in a rural haunted country home-- emphasizing that the horrors could happen to all of us, during the daytime, in our ordinary urban homes.
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Interesting point. Likewise, rural homes are less prone to break-ins, etc.
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
Related-- Michael what I found interesting reading a book analyzing jhorror with lots of referencing to The Grudge and The Ring, was that both stories have horror happening on broad daylight, and urban. The Grudge was purposefully set to occur in daylight, urban Tokyo, even at an office, or urban apartment, or urban home-- not at night in a rural haunted country home-- emphasizing that the horrors could happen to all of us, during the daytime, in our ordinary urban homes.
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Interestingly I've been thinking lately more and more that I want to make horror films set in daylight. I was partly inspired by this a couple of months ago:

 
Hmm,

I would say theft of intellectual property is plenty scary. Imagine your ideas being sucked straight from your head, Inception-style?

Might work in a film - probably has - but probably not a "horror."

Honestly, what scares me most are things that do and can happen, namely serial killers. The most heinous and well-known are wired differently from the rest of us. They're beyond something we rely on every day - reason.
 
J horror is very culturally based. It worked around the world, mainly for its scary moments, but for Japanese culture, the films have much more to offer, that we, westerners failed to see or understand. Why is it that Dark Water (also from Hideo Nakata) is all about water, hair, ghosts and little girls (as is The Ring)..? It has a lot to do with Japanese old fairy tales and ancestral themes. For us, these elements are purely aesthetic, but for their culture, it has a deeper meaning, probably making the viewing experience that much more powerful.

You have to look into your own fears, not try to second guess everyone else's. Ask yourself good questions, and you'll get good answers. I believe that good questions, that are hard to answer, make good films.

I don't think horror starts with aesthetics, be it dark or day time or whatnot, but I believe it starts with hard, difficult questions about a certain human condition. Than expand that into a smart, scary and interesting story.

But I always keep in mind, that for me, there are only a handfull of truly good horror films ever... that's got to be the most difficult genre to crack. Plus, it's not everyone's favorite type of film...

Start there... :)
 
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David Jimerson said:
Let's make sure we stay away from politics here.
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Not intended as such but point taken.

Back to OP, I really like the daylight notion. In fact turning anything which is traditionally safe into the threat is a great one. Killer seatbelts, cops gone bad, monsters that you have to hide in the dark from, insane surgeons, death by internet or mobile phones being used to monitor your communications and physically track you...anyone seen 'killer condom'? (although the latter like most horror is funnier than scary)
 
Here are some things off the top of my head...some are really plausible some are really fantastical.

- (from recent news story) methane plumes in the arctic and antarctic regions make the air unbreathable
- we've covered killer asteroids, but what if something were to impact the Earth that was HUGE and ALIVE? better yet, what if it hung around in orbit and threw stuff at us?
- a wandering black hole is detected heading for the solar system, Earth gets flung out into deep space, the sun is eaten by the black hole. "endless night."
- we've seen plenty of zombie horror as of late, but I hate the "it's a virus" excuse. What if it was completely supernatural? and those long dead also rose from their graves? and other...monsters started showing up?
- modern day version of "The Blob" ...google "grey goo" for a great scifi thriller concept.
 
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